The escalation in the media and on social networks of the fight between the governor of Chubut,
lgnacio "Nacho" Torres
(PRO), and the Government of
Javier Milei
, for which the provincial leader threatened to stop sending gas and oil from Wednesday to Nation, has a hidden protagonist: the
Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA)
.
Under the management of the former Peronist governor of Chubut Mariano Arcioni, the province
took on debt through the Trust Fund for Provincial Development
, one of the 29 of the controversy due to which the Omnibus Law began to fall.
In fact, it is one of the two funds that deputy Nicolás Massot asked to exclude from the changes, a proposal that the entire PRO and La Libertad Avanza bloc voted in favor.
The financial conditions of the debt that Chubut took on established two fixed monthly installments with the first maturity on the last business day of January 2024, already under the management of the new governor, Ignacio Torres, of the PRO.
The interest on the debt is adjusted with the Reference Stabilization Coefficient (CER) published by the BCRA.
One of the conflicts is in the Guarantee.
The thing is that subsection "f" establishes that Chubut assigns "pro solving" the rights to the sums to be received from Co-participation.
This is the point that the governor angrily claimed on Friday, which he counts at $13.5 billion and which he calculates as a third of the co-participation that the province receives.
The end of the exception: this is how Chubut ended up in red
For years, the provinces have been financed from
an exception granted by the BCRA.
But, a month ago, the Government announced that it was restricting the ability of the provinces to borrow from their banks to cover short-term expenses, such as paying salaries for public companies.
That safe conduct, therefore, no longer ran.
"The Central Bank informs us that the extension of the authorization for the provinces to borrow from provincial banks has been left off the agenda, a mechanism that they used many times to face urgent financial needs," said presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni.
This is a BCRA rule from October 2019, during Mauricio Macri's administration.
There, "financial assistance for the payment of staff salaries" from non-financial public firms was excluded from the credit quota that provincial banks have to finance public sector expenses.
That communication was renewed every year.
But in the last communication A7674, dated January 19, they reported that the extension ended on Wednesday, January 31.
It is the first obstacle for the Central Bank that Chubut encountered with its debt.
However, there were other mechanisms to get by.
Restructuring of the debt and the bond that the Central Bank rejected: the point of no return of the Chubut-Nación conflict
"On December 15, 2023, the Government of Chubut requested to refinance the December and January/24 installments of the FFDP [Trust Fund for Provincial Development], to improve the maturity curve," the radical vice-governor of Chubut
said online.
Gustavo Menna.
"After a meeting held with the Secretary of the Treasury of the Nation, another note was presented to the Minister of the Interior on February 16 (3 days before the withholding of the co-participation begins) reiterating the
need to refinance the debt with the Trust Fund
, since the update by CER that it provides for at times of very high inflation made its cancellation impossible without affecting the essential services of the Provincial State," Menna added.
The Minister lies blatantly.
On December 15, 2023, the Government of Chubut requested to refinance the December and January/24 installments of the FFDP, to improve the maturity curve.
(Follow) https://t.co/oHpB0pV1Kz
— Gustavo Menna (@gustamenna) February 24, 2024
And then came Chubut's attempt to use
another instrument to cancel its debt
.
"On February 22, formal authorization was requested to cancel the debt with the FFDP with resources obtained from the
issuance of debt securities
guaranteed with royalties, without there being a response, since the intention is to financially suffocate the Province," explained the deputy governor. .
That is, Chubut asked to issue a bond to cover that economic hole.
But he encountered another refusal from the Central Bank.
And without exception (which allowed him to take out credit with the provincial bank) or bonus, the conflict broke out.
Thus, Nación used the guarantee of keeping part of the co-participation to pay off the debt that the province had and Torres exploded.
Already with the confrontation in the open and the media darts flying through social networks, the radical deputy
Martín Tetaz
pointed out on his Twitter account:
"The BCRA does not allow Chubut to restructure
. That is why we have to lower a change and find a way out."
Santiago Bausili, president of the Central Bank.
Photo: Marcelo Carroll
Tetaz was responded to by the president of the Central Bank, Santiago Bausili, usually silent on social networks.
"Your comment can be interpreted as the BCRA sitting in a command center and at its discretion decides who is and who is not. The BCRA
supervises the risk that banks can take
, it does not limit the actions of anyone who intends to take on debt," It was the release of the owner of the entity.
When Chubut asked to issue a bond to cancel the debt, the Central Bank refused to approve it because it assured that
it was too risky
for the banks that wanted to acquire it.
Tetaz insisted on that point.
Hello Martin, to clarify, your comment can be interpreted as the BCRA sitting in a command center and discretionarily deciding who does and who does not.
The BCRA supervises the risk that banks can take, it does not limit the actions of anyone who intends to take on debt.
— Santiago Bausili (@Kicker0024) February 24, 2024
"The banks are covered by the Nation's debt without any guarantee. It seems very reasonable that they can have titles guaranteed in royalties, like BOCADE for example, which collects its royalty guarantee from the trustee, before the province smells the money," said the radical deputy.
He hinted that the BCRA could have approved Chubut to issue that bond and thus restructure the debt.
The Minister of Economy of Chubut, Facundo Ball
, also
pointed out to the Government.
"His initial position was
to delay the responses to all our proposals
, all of them have been showing willingness to pay, we have requested refinancing, debt exchange, total cancellation, Ignacio Torres has led this process from the beginning," the provincial official began.
"Even the total cancellation was a proposal that the National Government has no rationally economic way to refuse to accept, but for this we needed the authorization of the BCRA for the
placement of new securities on the market
, intended to cancel debt with the FFDP," he added. about those bonds that were
the last proposal that Chubut made to get out of the labyrinth.
Even the total cancellation was a proposal that the National Government has no rationally economic way to refuse to accept, but for this we needed the authorization of the BCRA for the placement of new securities on the market, intended to cancel debt with the FFDP.
— Facundo Ball (@FacundoBall) February 24, 2024
In this regard, economists close to the Government remember that it is not necessary for the bonds issued by a province to be purchased by banks: other investors can purchase them.
And they emphasize that the Central Bank, in order to "take care" of the banking system, establishes which bonds are risky and which are not.
However, as the banks already have the Nation's debt, other analysts believe that the BCRA could have allowed Chubut to issue the bond to decompress the situation.
There was no exception anymore.
Nor restructuring.
And then the placement of bonds was unauthorized.
It was the final trigger
.
Then came the exposed part of the conflict: the failure to send co-participation funds to Chubut, the cross accusations of non-payments and the threat of stopping the oil supply.